After almost a year, Catching Fire is at the printers and should be here soon! Thank you all so very much for being a part of this unique and special project. We feel that you will all be very pleased with the book.

Everyone will receive one contributor's copy. I am sorry that I cannot offer more than that, but as you all know, I am not going to be compensated for any of the time or money invested in this book. All future proceeds will be donated. So I am hoping that most everyone will be able to come to one of the events, or pick up the book somehow at a designated time and place. But if you do need to have your contributor's copy sent to you, please let me know and I will be happy to get it to you.

Three Rooms Press in New York is partnering with Rose of Sharon to distribute the book. We cannot possibly thank Kat Georges and Peter Carlaftes enough. Kat also did an absolutely superlative job with the layout and design. Attaching a copy of the fantastic cover she created using a photograph taken by Michelle Bitting's husband Phil Abrams.

We would like to share with you all one of the blurbs that we have received so far. More to come:

"In this time of climate change and the apocalyptic weather events it can bring, we have moved beyond writing about its devastation—fires, floods, magna earthquakes—to write out of the experience itself. In Catching Fire: The Los Angeles Wildfires, poets who live where the flames consumed land, treasure and human life give us poems as powerful as the destruction they survived. But this anthology offers a different sort of power, raw and intimate. Art redeems the story, from this book’s cover image, in which the remains of a charred typewriter confronts us, to the final poem. I hope this book finds the vast readership it deserves."

—Margaret Randall, author of The Calendar’s Whim and Letters that Breathe Fire.

Distribution info below:

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Angeles-Wildfires-February/dp/1513677713/ref=sr_1_3

Barnes & Noble:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/catching-fire-sa-griffin/1148866826

Target:
https://www.target.com/p/catching-fire-the-los-angeles-wildfires-by-s-a-griffin-richard-modiano-paperback/-/A-1007843696

More will be added over the next few weeks as the book goes to print.

ORDERING: Bookstores and libraries can now order the book via Ingram.

INDUSTRY ADVANCE GALLEYS: The advance galley is available for booksellers, librarians, and others on the book industry platform Edelweiss:

https://www.edelweiss.plus/?sku=1513677713&g=4400

Richard and I are working on booking gigs and have already booked three readings, working on more. Please let us know if you have any suggestions.

Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Venice, January 31, 2026, 3-6pm
Wacko, Hollywood, February 22, 2026, 3-6pm
Library Girl, Santa Monica, March 8, 2026, 7pm

Please let us know if you might be interested in participating on any of these shows. Either reply to this email or call me: (323) 252-0424.

With 58 contributors, we will be trying to get everyone booked on at least one event. Not everyone will be able to be on all of the shows, so I hope that you all understand and will come out to support one another as best you can. There will be readings throughout the coming year. Presently waiting to hear back from Altadena Public Library and LitFest in the Dena.

Thank you all so very much for being a part of Catching Fire.

Best of the holidays.

Much love to all,
S.A. Griffin & Richard Modiano